Originally broadcast on CBS, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The run
- Network
- NBC
- Years active
- 1937–1966
- Surviving broadcasts
- 252
- Genre
- variety
[Updated 6/26/20 to add 19 new episodes] This upload contains 255 episodes of Edgar Bergen's radio programs, including The Chase and Sanborn Hour, The Chase and Sanborn Show, The Charlie McCarthy Show, and The Edgar Bergen Hour.
1966 · 11965 · 11964 · 11956 · 111955 · 71954 · 121953 · 51952 · 51951 · 2
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 28 of 45Rough but complete · 17 of 45
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
26 dated broadcasts across 30 years on the air, with 21 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1951, in original transmission order.
- 1. Edgar Bergen Guest - June Allyson · 15 Apr 1951
- 2. Edgar Bergen Guest - Frankie Laine · 16 Dec 1951
- 3. Edgar Bergen Guest - William Warfield · 6 Jan 1952
102nd Anniversay - Honoring the Fortieth Anniversary of NBC
13 Nov 1966 · 1h 16m
Originally broadcast on NBC, 13 November 1966. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
101st Anniversary - Presenting Fred & Portland Allen
14 Nov 1965 · 52 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 14 November 1965. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Chase and Sanborn 100th Anniversary
15 Nov 1964 · 52 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 15 November 1964. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Edgar Bergen Guest - Lost in the Woods
22 Apr 1956 · 54 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 22 April 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Edgar Bergen Guest - Ben Him
15 Apr 1956 · 55 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 15 April 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Edgar Bergen Interplanetary Western
8 Apr 1956 · 55 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 8 April 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Edgar Bergen Mortimer's Ups and Downs
25 Mar 1956 · 58 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 25 March 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Edgar Bergen McCarthy's Cavalcade of Flops
18 Mar 1956 · 58 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 18 March 1956. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Same night on the air
11 Oct 1953
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 11 Oct 1953.
Originally broadcast on NBC, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
The Comic Weekly Man
CWM ep338 Riddle - Add Ten to Nothing, First Comic - Bringing Up Father
11 Oct 1953 · 28 min
Originally broadcast on Syndicated, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Originally broadcast on NBC, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Originally broadcast on CBS, 11 October 1953. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Also on NBC
NBC in 1937–1966
Other series the network carried while Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy was on the air.
Same seasons
variety on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
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